Research Topic

Armenians between Istanbul and Armenia: An
Ethnography of Communal Identity in Transnational Contexts

Supervisor(s)

Dr. Ruth Mandel
Dr. Susan Paul Pattie

Introduction

At the moment, I am conducting an
ethnographic research with the aim of understanding the everyday dynamics of
communal identity formations among Armenians in contemporary Istanbul, Turkey.
It is estimated that 20,000 Armenians from the Republic of Armenia (henceforth
the RoA) illegally live and work in Istanbul, where a native Armenian community
of 70,000 people already exists. People from the RoA started to come to Turkey
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the number has slowly increased
since then. I investigate how the relationships between the Armenian natives
and migrants/sojourners from the RoA influence the ways Armenians formulate
their communal identities.

Immigration from post-Soviet Armenia to Turkey
has expanded – and transformed – the already existing networks that have
connected the various Armenian communities which were dispersed as a result of
centuries of migration through diasporizations (and re-diasporizations) and
overseas trading. The emergence of Armenia as an independent nation-state
located the new country as a materialized ‘homeland’ within these networks. Although
this initially identified citizens of RoA as “homelanders,” the native
community of Istanbul still believes that they are connected to their homeland
within the boundaries of Turkey despite their political and social status in
the country. For this reason, during my fieldwork I observe the relationships
between these communities, their narratives about these relationships, and the
transmission of these narratives through global networks of Armenians.